VOYAGE FROM BOMBAY TO MADRAS AND CALCUTTA.

No. II.

First Landing of Europeans at Calicut-Description of the Townits varied Inhabitants, Commerce, &c.-Visit to Beypour.

March 30.-As our supply of water was not yet filled up for the ship's use, we were detained here for another day, which was devoted to an examination of the town, and a ride to some of the most agreeable spots, and most commanding views in the neighbourhood.

Calicut will be remembered as the place at which the Portuguese made their first landing in India, when it was visited by the celebrated Vasco de Gama, in 1498. At that period it was governed by a Chief of the Nyers, under the title of the Zamorin, to whom nearly the whole coast of Malabar, and all the plain country beneath the Ghauts, was then subject. The jealousy of the Arabs, who were then the principal foreign merchants here, at the arrival of Europeans, whom they had been accustomed to supply by way of Egypt and the Red Sea, and the bravery and firmness of De Gama, in his resistance of their influence with the Zamorin, are very eloquently described by the Abbé Raynal, in his History of the European Establishments in the East and West Indies.

The Portuguese Historian of Asia, Manuel de Faria y Sousa, says, "About 600 years before the arrival of the Portuguese in India, there reigned in Malabar a powerful monarch, from whose reign the people begin their era or historical computations, as they did afterwards from our arrival. This king was persuaded by the Moors, who traded to his port, to turn Mohammedan, and gave them liberty to build houses at Calicut. When he grew old he divided his kingdom among his kindred, giving Coulans to the chief, where he placed the principal seat of his religion of the Bramins, and gave him the title of Cobritim, which signifies High Priest. To his nephew he gave Calicut, with the title of Zamorin, which signifies Emperor. This dignity continues in the Sovereign of Calicut, but the other has been removed to Cochin. Having disposed of his dominions, he resolved to die at Mecca, but was drowned by the way.'

" *

The Portuguese found this place at the period of their visit powerful in arms, and wealthy by commerce, and it is said, indeed, that at this period it was the greatest trading mart on all the western coast of India.

* Portuguese Discovery and Conquest of India, in Kerr's Collection.vol. vi. p. 87.

In the year 1509, when the Portuguese made their attack on the island of Diu, on the coast of Guzerat, under their celebrated leader Almeyda, they were opposed by a large fleet of praos, manned by the Moors of Calicut, as they were called, acting as much perhaps from enmity to the invaders, as in the light of mercenaries to the governors of that Island.

It was in the same year that Albuquerque prepared an expedition against Calicut, which sailed from Cochin with thirty vessels of various sizes, 1800 land troops, and several boats crowded with the natives of Malabar, who followed in hopes of plunder. They arrived at Calicut, says De Faria, on the 2d of January, 1510. Every one, he adds, strove to be so posted as to land first, and the men were so eager for landing, that they were under arms all night, and so tired in the morning, that they were fitter for sleep than fighting,-yet soon recovered when the signal was given, and the cannon began to roar. The attack that was made on the bulwark or bastion of Ceram, by De Cunna and De Sousa, though bravely repelled by about 600 men, was seconded so well on the coming up of Albuquerque himself, that the defenders fled, and left the Portuguese in possession of the fortress.

A saying of Fernando Coutinno, who acted in conjunction with Albuquerque on this expedition, is recorded by his historian, as a proof of a high military spirit, and deserves to be repeated. Albuquerque, it is said, being fearful of some disastrous event from the confusion of his men, sent notice to Coutinno, who came with all speed to his assistance. On seeing the Portuguese colours flying on the bulwark, Coutinno believed he had been called back by a contrivance of the Viceroy, to prevent him from acquiring honour, and addressed him in the following terms :-" Were you ambitious, Sir, that the rabble of Lisbon should report you to have been the first in storming Calicut, that you thus recal me? I shall tell the king that I could have entered it with only this cane in my hand, and since I find no one to fight with, I am resolved to proceed to the palace of the Zamorin." Without waiting any reply from Albuquerque, he actually marched there, and storming the palace at the head of his men, drove all its defenders from it. But the Indians having procured a reinforcement, fell upon the Portuguese while they were loaded with the plunder of the place, and after killing and wounding many, effectually drove them back again.

Albuquerque had in the mean time possessed himself of the city of Calicut, which he set on fire and afterwards abandoned, while he marched off to the palace in search of Coutinno. He found this Chief in great danger, and in attempting to relieve him had many of his men killed by the enemy, and was himself so severely wounded by a dart in the throat, and a stone on the head, that he was carried senseless to the shore. Coutinno and almost all his division were slain, on their way from the palace to the shore, being op

pressed, as the historian says, by the multitude of the enemy, spent with labour and heat, and almost stifled by the great dust. There was now as keen a contest about who should get first on board, as there had been about landing first, not considering that all their misfortunes had been occasioned by hurry and confusion. At length they got on board, and sailed on their return to Cochin, having lost 800 men, or nearly half their original number, in this ill-conducted enterprise, among whom too were Coutinno and many other persons of note. *

Notwithstanding this signal defeat of the Portuguese, it was only twelve years afterwards that the terror of their name had been raised by repeated victories to such a pitch, as to strike dismay into all who went to oppose them. In the year 1521, the Zamorin of Calicut made war against Cochin, at the head of 200,000 men, and although only forty Portuguese were in the army of Cochin, and but thirty of these were armed with muskets, the enemy retired in dismay. †

The Portuguese had by this time obtained sufficient footing at Calicut to have a garrison of their own there, for De Faria, in describing the events of the year 1524, the year in which the renowned Don Vasco de Gamá came out as Viceroy to India, and died on the eve of Christmas at Goa, says, "The fort at Calicut was at this time much straitened by the Naynes, yet the small garrison of fifty Portuguese, maintained their post with much honour." Shortly after this, he adds, the Zamorin of Calicut besieged the Portuguese fort at that place, with an army of 12,000 men, and surrounded it with a broad and deep trench. Don Juan de Lima commanded in the fort with 200 men, and did every thing in his power to obstruct the besiegers in the construction of their lines, but they were at last finished and planted with a vast number of cannon, some of which were so large as to carry balls of two spans diameter. On receiving advice of the siege, Don Enrique sent a reinforcement of 150 men, in two caravels, commanded by Christopher Jusante and Duarte Forseca. They succeeded in forcing their way into the fort, in spite of a violent opposition by sea and land. Immediately afterwards the enemy endeavoured to take the fort by escalade, but were repulsed with great slaughter.

A further reinforcement of 500 men from Cochin, being unable to reach Calicut, Don Enrique went there with all the naval force he could collect, being unwilling that his government should suffer the disgrace of allowing this fortress to be taken by the enemy. Having thrown some strong reinforcements into the fort, Don Enrique landed with the remainder of his troops, after clearing the shore of the enemy, by means of his guns, assisted by grenadoes and other fire-works. All the intrenchments and redoubts of the

* Kerr's Collection, vol. vi. pp. 127, 128. † Ibid, p. 190. ↑ Ibid, 201.

besiegers were successively carried, with prodigious slaughter of the Moors and Naynes, of whom above 2,000 were slain, besides many others burnt in their wooden forts and bulwarks. In this engagement, Don George de Menezes made great slaughter of the enemy, with a two-handed sword, till losing his right hand, he took a smaller sword in his left, and continued to fight with great valour. Don Enrique remained master of the field in which he encamped, for four days; but as the fort was not considered important in proportion to its expense, it was stripped of every thing of value with great care and privacy, and mines and trains were laid to blow it up, after which the whole army retired to the ships. On seeing the fort evacuated, the Moors rushed in to plunder in vast numbers; but the mines suddenly taking fire, blew up the whole fabric with a vast explosion, in which great numbers of the enemy miserably perished. *

Calicut continues to be incidentally mentioned in the Portuguese annals long after this, but chiefly as a place of commerce at which their vessels touched, and it continued at intervals to be visited by and to belong to them, until the arrival of the Dutch in India, when the Zamorin, who had long been tired of such troublesome guests, assisted the Dutch to expel and to replace them.

Since that period most of the European nations who have traded to India, have had factories at Calicut, and it has invariably preserved its consequence as a commercial port, from its fertility and the valuable productions of the surrounding country, as well as for its central situation among the ports on the coast of Malabar.

Calicut was at a still later period invested by Hyder Ali, to whom the Zamorin voluntarily surrendered it; but Hyder subsequently restored to him his possessions, exacting only a small annual tribute.

In 1782 it was taken by the English, when the Moguls were driven from the country, and the Zamorin exempted from his tribute to them. It now nominally belongs to the Zamorin, who goes through the farce of being crowned, and is attended by a court equipage; but the East India Company have him completely in their power as the collection of the revenue by land and sea, the disposition of the forces, and indeed all the economy of his dominions is in their hands, and managed by the military and civil officers of the Madras Establishment, while this pageant of an Emperor is supported by an annual pension from the Company's funds! The town of Calicut extends along the sea beach for upwards of a mile in length, and may be about half a mile in general breadth from the sea shore inward. It is not seated on a river, as some authorities describe it to be, for the river of Calicut is considerably to the southward of the town, and not to the northward, as Mr. Milburn has placed it. Some of the principal streets are long, wide, and spa

* Kerr's Collection, pp. 201-203.

cious, and have others crossing them at right angles, but the greater number of them are narrow and irregular. The houses are in general more solidly built than is usually seen in dwellings of the lower order of people in India, and except in the bazars or other continued streets, the dwellings are mostly isolated from each other, ascended to by a flight of steps, surrounded by a stone wall, and placed in the centre of an open space of ground within, so that they might easily be defended by a few against many.

Among the public buildings there are several pagodas belonging to the Hindoo part of the population. And mosques of the Mohammedan portion of the people, with numerous tanks, or reservoirs of water respectively attached to each. Of the pagodas, the principal one that we saw was composed of several low square buildings included within a large walled court. The court itself was paved with flat stones, and kept clean by women who were sweeping it at the time of our visit, and sprinkling it with perfumed and consecrated water. The buildings within were constructed of an open frame work of wood, like cages, the cross-bars and upright pieces of it being little more than an inch in thickness, and the intervals left between them about a foot square. Along these bars were continued lines of small brass lamps, one being fixed at each junction or crossing of the frame work; and on great festivals it was said that all these lamps were lighted up, which gave an appearance of singular beauty as well as of great brilliancy to the buildings thus illuminated. We saw no idols of their gods, as these were probably in the innermost part of the temple.

The mosques of the Mohammedans are all of a very mean kind; most of them are small rooms, sometimes surmounted by a dome, but we remarked one which was of a totally different description. This was a large building near the centre of the town, standing on elevated ground, and occupying a square of at least 200 feet. It rose to a height of four or five stories, and was then crowned by a sloping roof; but the greatest peculiarity of its structure was that the base of every succeeding story extended beyond the one below it, and then the walls going in an inclined slope outward, extended so as to make each upper story project over the lower one, while the space left between the upper part of one story, and the base of the following one, its receding inward, was covered by a species of sloping roof or shed to carry off the water. In each of the stories were regular lines of windows, but there were no doors excepting in the ground-floor. It was, altogether, the most singular building that I ever remember to have seen, and seemed to me to be constructed in such direct opposition to all the established principles of architecture, that it was a wonder how it held together at all. I could not ascertain whether the stories were divided by corresponding floors on the inside, or whether the building was open all the way to the top; for as the Mohammedans here are a bigotted race,